according to medicare trustees, for instance, medicare paid $35 billion more to beneficiaries this year than it took in last year in payroll taxes. and its trust funds will be depleted 12 years from now if we don't act to save medicare in a responsible way. the other issue that is not being talked about very much at all is social security. in 2010 and 2011, social security expenditures, the benefits paid to retirees and the disabled, exceeded payroll tax revenue for the first time since 1983. so as a practical matter, we know that the federal government is borrowing to pay the social security needs of today. last year, 2011, the social security trustees reported that with benefits pay continuing to he can seed payroll -- exceed payroll, that the trust funds would be depleted in 2036, after which the program would have a net unfunded obstacles through the end of -- unfunded obligation through the end of the evaluation window and that net unfunded obligation would be $6.5 trillion. after reading the trustees' report last year, i drafted the defend and save social security act to preserve